The North Carolina’s Southeast held their annual meeting Tuesday at Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery with 130 people attending. David Fountain, President of North Carolina Duke Energy, was the keynote speaker for the evening.
Fountain spoke about Duke Energy’s presence in southeastern North Carolina and discussed their efforts in economic development working with North Carolina’s Southeast and other organizations. Fountain also talked some of the services Duke Energy offers and the recovery from Hurricane Matthew.
North Carolina’s Southeast President Steve Yost said they were pleased with the response to the event. He said the event was started due to the fact the organization’s by-laws require them to hold an annual board meeting which highlights the results of the past year and give an annual report. Yost said the board decided to take that annual meeting and make a much larger event and invite everyone to attend. He described the annual meeting as a way for everyone to come in and interact, network and collaborate on projects.
Yost said that North Carolina’s Southeast represents a 15 county region and markets those counties to perspective companies who are seeking to locate in the region. The counties served by North Carolina’s Southeast are: Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Hoke, Montgomery, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, and Wayne counties.
“We had a pretty good year,” said Yost.
Some of the projects in the region that North Carolina’s Southeast assisted in include a PepsiCo regional distribution center in Robeson County; a bio-renewable energy project in Dublin County; Mountaire Farms announced last week a new agri-business manufacturing company in Scotland County; and last fall a textile plant was announced for Anson County.
Yost said these projects alone generated $135 million in investments among these companies and created 300 new jobs. He said that over the past two years, 3,600 new jobs have been created in the region in which they serve.
“We always want to do better–no matter how good a year we have,” said Yost.
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